 All the way back in September 2013, I made my first review for this channel. It was about the Top Gear series for Super Nintendo, and as you might guess, the video isn't very good because I didn't really know what I was doing or what I was trying to accomplish at the time. Now that I have a better sense of how to do these videos, let's give it another shot. Starting with Top Gear, which is based off of the old Lotus series developed previous to this for the Amiga. I remember being at Video Vision in West St. Paul with my mom sometime in the early 90s, and I was tired of all the usual games I'd rented over the years. I checked out stuff like Mega Man X, Counter 3, Super Castlevania IV, and all the pertinent sports games a million times by then, and I was dying for something different. For whatever reason, Top Gear caught my eye, and that ended up being my game for the weekend, and I'm so glad it did because it's become one of my all-time favorites. And that's for several reasons. To start with, it gets all the typical racing game stuff down perfectly. I know I've said this many times across many different videos, but it's worth saying again, and that's that Top Gear nails that feeling of speed. This game feels so fast, and that goes a long way toward what makes it so addictive. In addition to that, if most of the gameplay revolves around staring at the back of a car, then there needs to be a great soundtrack to help carry the experience. And Top Gear's soundtrack is off the charts great, one of the very best on the SNES. I'm talking every single track is good. But yeah, there's also tons of different race tracks, 32 of them to be exact, and lots of different environments, countries, and difficulty settings you can race through. You gotta finish in the top 5 of each race to keep progressing, but you can skip through countries if you'd like, using the password system, which is mercifully just one word, like Gearbox. What really helps Top Gear stand out as a quality racing game though, are the elements of strategy present here. The first and most obvious being the 4 different cars you can choose from. Some have a higher top speed, some have better control on turns, and some are more fuel efficient, which leads to the next aspect, which is fuel management. Some races are just 3 or 4 laps, but many are a lot longer and require pit stops, and it's completely up to you, the player, on when you want to stop and for how long. If you're just a little bit off with your fuel management, you risk running out of fuel and just sitting there out of gas like an idiot while everyone finishes the race. Conversely, if you waste too much time fueling up, you risk everyone passing you. Top Gear strikes a nice balance with the strategy, in this case. In addition you also get 3 nitros per race, these are speed boosts you can use at any time, but you gotta be careful when you use them, because they could send you careening into the side barriers and cost you a ton of time. Top Gear is not perfect though, as you've probably noticed throughout the footage so far, everything is in split screen, even single player mode. That's right, you're stuck watching the computer race beneath you, and that kinda sucks. I get the feeling that this was because of a compromise or workaround of some kind to get around some technical limitations. It's kinda disappointing, but on the other hand it's kinda nice to have a rival to mess with. Also for an arcade style racing game, there isn't too much carnage here. When you hit something, you just kinda bounce off of it. No spectacular crashes or anything sadly. But yeah, Top Gear is so much fun, especially with the second player. A quick fun fact, for whatever reason this game remains hugely popular in South America, across Brazil, Argentina, Chile, so it's great that so many people are so into Top Gear to this day, and hey, why wouldn't they be? The combination of speed with the exhilarating soundtrack is perfect, and it makes for one of the three best racing games on the SNES. Next came Top Gear 2, and there are a number of changes made from the first game, both good and bad. The game still has the same basic nuts and bolts, but let's go over the changes. To start off, the split screen and single player mode is gone. That's good. But they did away with the pit stops and fuel management. That's bad. You don't get to pick your car at the beginning, either. That's bad. But this time around you're racing for money, which you spend to upgrade a specific part of your car. That's good. But the Frogert is also cursed. Oh wait. The thing is though, the upgrade system isn't particularly balanced. I think the developers wanted fuel management to still be an aspect of strategy here, and it still barely is if you upgrade your engine to a certain point, but ultimately your fuel meter is irrelevant, since just about every race is between 3 and 5 laps. Really if you wanted to, you could just upgrade your nitros as often as you could. Use all 6 consecutively at the beginning of each race, and just blow past everyone and win pretty easily. One other thing that's really bothersome here is the sound effect of the tires screeching. They really should have made that a little quieter and the music a little louder, because that gets annoying fast. Don't get me wrong though, Top Gear 2 is still very good. The upgrade system is still pretty interesting and something different. It's definitely ambitious, and managing your money and deciding what to upgrade can be pretty fun. You know, as long as you ignore the nitro upgrade thing. The armor system in particular is kinda interesting. If you upgrade that, you won't slow down as much when you bump into other cars. But yeah, the computer AI is a tad smarter, the challenge here can be pretty substantial, and you have weather to contend with as well. So what kind of tires you pick really matters. There's also a lot more tracks and locations, 16 total countries with races in 64 cities. And of course, this is also still a great multiplayer game. It's worth mentioning quickly that there are also ports made for the Sega Genesis and the Amiga. But yeah, despite its flaws and imbalances, Top Gear 2 is still very good, and a great alternative to the first game if the split screen really bothers you. Last we have Top Gear 3000, and yes, just as the title suggests, the developers got bored with a plain old racing game and decided to time travel into the future. The general gameplay is very similar to Top Gear 2, and the upgrade system has some similarities as well, although a tiny bit more balanced. But there are a lot more bells and whistles, like these jump thrusters that send your car soaring over other cars, weapons you can use to blast the Bejesus out of your opponents, and even warp devices. While Top Gear 3000 may look and play more like Top Gear 2, it's actually a bit closer overall to the first Top Gear, because it requires that same quick thinking, planning and strategy. You have to manage your fuel and your damage meter, as well as contend with split pathways on the racetrack. Split paths are faster to the exit, but others function as a makeshift pitstop, so to speak, because they'll have replenishments laid out on the track itself, similar to a game like F-Zero. This is really clever because they're essentially pitstops, but you're still racing instead of just sitting there. The split paths are really what make Top Gear 3000 stand out. In fact, this is the only Super Nintendo game to utilize the DSP Ford ship. The split paths wouldn't be possible without it. And in addition to that, this game is 4 player compatible, so that's pretty cool. There's also a hilariously goofy backstory written in the manual, where World War 17 had devastated most of the planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, so in order to keep the peace, the powers that be put a strict reprimand on anything resembling independent thought or reckless behavior. Something tells me whoever wrote this story didn't exactly have a very positive outlook on the human race. Anyway, racing is against the law, but these guys must race anyway, because screw the government, am I right? But yeah, Top Gear 3000 is one game where my opinion has changed over the years. This was a fun one to revisit, and it's well worth checking out today, because of the use of weapons, the split tracks, and the enjoyably weird story. But if I had to pick one game out of the three to recommend over the others, it's gotta be the first Top Gear, if nothing else but for the soundtrack. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a good rest of your day.